May 6, 2008
by Gustav Wynn

http://www.opednews.com

Florida police made public two notes handwritten by Deborah Jeane Palfrey this weekend, touching off debate on whether her hanging was in fact suicide or staged to look so. At least one reporter is claiming the DC Madam mentioned she'd kill herself before returning to prison, but another interviewer has aired recent audio of Palfrey warning that if she was found dead, it would be murder.

Initial reports of Palfrey's death conclusively ruled it a suicide, unbelievable considering the magnitude of the sensitive secrets she held. I first heard the news on an NPR broadcast Thursday afternoon which included an official's soundbyte on how relatives are victimized in suicides, a strange generalization that pointed blame at Palfrey for hurting her own mother before any other details of the case were released. This statement was attached to the breaking news by an "imbedded pundit", only raising suspicion of media manipulation in the earliest going.

Any intelligent debate is impossible with this lack of detail available so far. We're told the letters were penned a few days before her body was discovered hanged in her mother's shed, left on a nearby motel stand, though we don't know when investigators first saw them. Police say relatives confirmed her handwriting, but we know virtually nothing about their opinion on the letters, her physical condition or other clues. Her autopsy was conducted quietly and quickly, though a final report is due this week after toxicology results come in.

Palfrey's note used a number of clichéd expressions, strangely including "modern day lynching", referring to the extremely selective enforcement that found her guilty in federal court and a darkly ironic reference to her impending manner of death.

Among her known clients were current Louisiana Senator Vitter, former AIDS Czar Randall Tobias, Dick Morris and military-industrial wonk Harlan Ullman, but Dick Cheney's McLean, VA phone number, reported earlier was summarily un-reported after a turnaround by ABC News.

ABC anchor Sam Donaldson has also been a rumored client, along with a law partner of Rudy Giuliani, associates of Jack Abramoff and many more Pentagon, DC and corporate insiders on a list of over 10,000 numbers.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_gustav_w_080506_abc_news_shielding_c.htm

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Let The Penguin Surf !

By Greg Mitchell
Published: April 30, 2008

Former PM Tony Blair and Shrubbie !

NEW YORK On May 1, 2003, Richard Perle advised, in a USA Today op-ed, “Relax, Celebrate Victory.” The same day, exactly five years ago, President Bush, dressed in a flight suit, landed on the deck of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln and declared an end to major military operations in Iraq—with the now-infamous “Mission Accomplished” banner arrayed behind him in the war’s greatest photo op.

Chris Matthews on MSNBC called Bush a “hero” and boomed, “He won the war. He was an effective commander. Everybody recognizes that, I believe, except a few critics.” PBS’s Gwen Ifill said Bush was “part Tom Cruise, part Ronald Reagan.” On NBC, Brian Williams gushed, "The pictures were beautiful. It was quite something to see the first-ever American president on a -- on a carrier landing. This must be very meaningful to the United States military."

When Bush’s jet landed on an aircraft carrier, American casualties stood at 139 killed and 542 wounded.

Day 1836 since "mission accomplished" was declared by the ******* !
The U.S. death toll is now 4073.

That's 23 in the last 14 days!

GD

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Live long and prosper!

I almost forgot !!!!

Tomorrow's Jenna Bush's Wedding Day !!!!

[img]http://rapidcityjournal.com/blogs/editor/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/jenna.jpg[/img]

Jenna: DAAAAADEEEEE..If You Don't Have Cherie Currie Come Play At My Wedding ...I'm Going To Go Into The Oval Office And Launch A Nuclear Warhead On Sweden !!!!

Michael Moore is making a sequel to "Fahrenheit 9/11" for Paramount Vantage and Overture Films, who will shop the project to international buyers when the Cannes Film Festival and market get under way today.

The two companies are co-financing and co-producing the untitled documentary, which will be released in 2009. Overture will distribute the film domestically, while Vantage will handle international.

Moore may be leaving the Weinstein Co. -- where he made his last two films, including "Fahrenheit" -- but Overture and Vantage are no strangers to the filmmaker. Overture CEO Chris McGurk and COO Danny Rosett were both at MGM and United Artists, home of Moore's "Bowling for Columbine."

Moore also knows Vantage topper Nick Meyer, former president of Lionsgate's international arm. Lionsgate teamed with Bob and Harvey Weinstein and distributed Fahrenheit after Disney refused to let Miramax to do so. Lionsgate again teamed with the Weinstein's to distribute Moore's last docu, "Sicko."

Also, Moore is no stranger to the Croisette. "Fahrenheit," a scathing indictment of George W. Bush's war on terrorism and a hit at the worldwide box office, won the coveted Palm d'Or in 2004. "Bowling for Columbine" also played at Cannes, while "Sicko" premed here last year.

It's possible that his new docu could play at Cannes next year, if it isn't released earlier in the Spring. He's already at work on the docu.

"Clearly, we have a movie of global appeal here. Michael Moore is a very talented filmmaker, and this is a branded property," Meyer said.

Sequel will pick up where "Fahrenheit" left off. In the time since, President Bush's popularity has plummeted, while the Iraq war continues and the economy falters.

"It's a vote of confidence on Michael's part, and a great partnership for all of us," Rosett said. "There is a voracious appetite for this kind of commentary."

All in all, Moore has made three of the top five grossing documentaries of all time. "Fahrenheit" is the highest grossing docu ever domestically, earning $119.1 million. It grossed another $100 million at the international box office.

Moore's decision not to make his next film with the Weinstein Co. comes after "Sicko" failed to ignite the box office. Film, which took on the U.S. health care system, grossed $24.5 million domestically and $11.2 million internationally. Topically, the film didn't resonate with overseas auds.

Landing the "Fahrenheit" sequel is a high-profile score for Overture and Vantage, and a likely blow for the Weinstein Co.

Deal strengthens the already established relationship between Vantage and Overture. Last year, the two entered into an exclusive international distribution deal that gives Overture access to Vantage's international sales division, as well as the distrib arm of Paramount Pictures Intl.

Vantage will likely keep distribution rights to certain overseas territories, after selling off the rest.

Bob Barr has officially launched his campaign for President of the United States.

Speaking alongside his wife Jeri and son Derek at a press conference in Washington DC on May 12th, he announced his candidacy for the Libertarian presidential nomination:

“I’ve heard from Americans from all walks of life… they want a choice. They believe that America has more and better to offer than what the current political situation is serving up to us.

The status quo has given us the litany of problems that we’re all very familiar with. The debt, the deficit, the problems we see in the economy, the trade imbalance, and the occupation of Iraq. These are all children of the status quo.

I will be a candidate precisely to give the American people a voice and give them a meaningful choice so that they do not have to vote for the lesser of two evils.

American voters deserve better.“

Help us to spread this message far and wide to your friends and neighbors. View Bob’s special online message and listen to audio from the announcement as Bob took questions from members of the press at our Media Center.

With your generous support we know Bob will receive the nomination and provide a real choice in November. As our campaign strategizes for the Libertarian convention and beyond, your early financial support is essential to building this effort and continuing the revolution.

Now is the time to join together and send a message that Bob provides clear alternatives to the status quo. Please make a contribution of $25, $50, $75, $100, or any amount you can afford.

Toward Liberty,

Bob Barr 2008 Online Team

By Janine Zacharia and Hans Nichols

May 14 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush's visit to Israel today to mark the country's 60th anniversary was marred by violence and warnings by Israel's leader that the military will do what it must to stop rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip.

A few hours after Bush arrived, a Palestinian rocket fired from the Gaza Strip struck a mall in Ashkelon, a coastal city of about 110,000 people. Dozens were injured. Earlier, Israeli airstrikes killed three Palestinian militants and a civilian in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical officials said.

``What happened today is entirely intolerable and unacceptable,'' Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said at a celebration in Jerusalem of U.S.-Israel relations attended by Bush, Israeli and U.S. officials, academics and world Jewish leaders. ``The government of Israel is committed to stop it, and we will take the necessary steps so that this will stop.''

Olmert, speaking earlier alongside Bush, said Israel won't accept cross-border attacks from Gaza, which is controlled by the militant Palestinian Islamic group Hamas. ``We will make exceptional efforts that we will not explain, but we will not be able to tolerate continuous attacks against innocent civilians.''

The U.S. condemned the attack on Ashkelon, which came as Egypt works to negotiate a cease-fire among Palestinian militants.

``It's clear Hamas isn't interested in peace or helping the people of Gaza lead better lives,'' White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe, who is accompanying Bush, said in a statement.

``Political goals will never be achieved by launching rockets from Gaza onto innocent women and children.''

Israeli Reprisal

Israel's military chief, Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi, has decided to back a broad thrust deep into the Gaza Strip to stop the attacks, the daily newspaper Ma'ariv said today, without citing anyone.

The Israeli military operation could be launched as early as next week, following Bush's trip, the newspaper said.

Bush, with only eight months left in office, is on his second visit to Israel in five months, meeting with Olmert as the prime minister faces possible indictment on corruption charges. Olmert has said he would resign if indicted.

Bush is pushing for at least the outlines of an Israeli- Palestinian peace deal before he leaves office. His national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, told reporters en route to Israel that an agreement is still possible.

Bush, on his arrival, drew parallels between the founding of both America and Israel. ``We built strong democracies to protect the freedoms given to us by an almighty God,'' he said.

`Closest Ally'

Olmert, greeting Bush, called him ``our closest ally and partner'' and thanked him for celebrating ``this historic milestone with us.'' The American president's presence in Israel ``is further evidence of your unending commitment to the security and well-being of our country,'' Olmert said.

Speaking after meeting with Olmert, Bush reiterated his commitment to ``stand with democracies,'' including supporting Israel against the ``existential threat'' of an Iranian nuclear weapon.

Tomorrow, Bush visits Masada, the ancient Jewish fortress overlooking the Dead Sea where Jews committed mass suicide after holding out against the Roman army.

After visiting Masada, Bush will deliver a speech to the Israeli parliament, the Knesset. ``I hear it's a place of many a sharp elbow,'' Bush said in his remarks at tonight's celebration.

``I'm looking forward to giving my speech. I'm not going to be throwing any elbows,'' he joked, after viewing a video- montage documenting the history of U.S.-Israeli ties and a male duet of interpretive dance set to the 1970s Carole King hit, later made famous by James Taylor, ``You've Got a Friend.''

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aPHqZaSBFszE&refer=home

Blinking Back Tears

Before his remarks, Bush blinked back tears when praised by Olmert for his commitment to Israel. In his brief speech, Bush made a plea for unity in fighting terror. ``We must be steadfast and we must be strong in the face of those who murder the innocent to achieve their objectives,'' he said.

Bush was preceded on stage by billionaire U.S. casino owner Sheldon Adelson, a prominent Republican donor. Adelson, chairman and chief executive officer of Las Vegas Sands Corp., was questioned in a bribery investigation that is roiling Israeli politics and might lead to the collapse of Olmert's governing coalition.

Ron Reese, Adelson's spokesman, confirmed in a telephone interview yesterday that Adelson met with Israeli authorities. Questions about Adelson's involvement in the inquiry amount to a ``tempest in a teapot,'' Adelson said, according to Reese.

Adelson, after making brief remarks, shook hands with Bush and Israeli President Shimon Peres, who both stood to greet him. Olmert, sitting one seat away from Bush and next to Laura Bush, didn't stand for Adelson and avoided any contact with him.

Bush travels later this week to Saudi Arabia and then to Egypt.

To contact the reporters on this story: Hans Nichols in Jerusalem at hnichols2@bloomberg.net; Janine Zacharia in Jerusalem at jzacharia@bloomberg.net

By CHUCK BABINGTON, Associated Press Writer

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Democrat John Edwards is endorsing former rival Barack Obama, fresh signs of the party establishment embracing the likely nominee even as Hillary Rodham Clinton refuses to give up her long-shot candidacy.

Edwards was to appear with Obama in Grand Rapids, Mich., as Obama campaigns in a critical general election battleground state.

The endorsement comes the day after Clinton defeated Obama by more than 2-to-1 in West Virginia. The loss highlighted Obama's work to win over the "Hillary Democrats" — white, working-class voters who also supported Edwards in large numbers before he exited the race.

Edwards, a former North Carolina senator and the 2004 vice presidential nominee, dropped out of the race in late January.

Both Obama and Clinton immediately asked Edwards for his endorsement, but he stayed mum for more than four months. A person close to Edwards, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he wanted to get involved now to begin unifying the party. Obama also signed on to Edwards' poverty initiative, which was a major cause for Edwards in his campaign and since he left.

When he made his decision, Edwards didn't even tell many of his former top advisers because he wanted to make sure that he personally talked to Clinton to give her the news, said the person close to him. Edwards' wife, Elizabeth, who has spoken favorably about Clinton's health care plan, did not travel with him to Michigan and is not part of the endorsement.

I casted my vote for one Ron Paul.

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http://www.catfightreport.com

Los Angeles Times
May 12, 2008

Virtually all the nation’s political attention in recent weeks has focused on the compelling state-by-state presidential nomination struggle between two Democrats and the potential for party-splitting strife over there.


But in the meantine, quietly, largely under the radar of most people, the forces of Rep. Ron Paul and his libertarian-minded GOP backers are collecting delegates at the local level and planning a revolt against Sen. John McCain at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul in Septembereantime, quietly, largely under the radar of most people, the forces of Rep.Ron Paul and his libertarian-minded GOP backers are collecting delegates at the local level and planning a revolt against Sen. John McCain at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul in September.

Paul’s presidential candidacy has been correctly dismissed all along in terms of winning the nomination. He was even excluded as irrelevant by Fox News from a nationally-televised GOP debate in New Hampshire.

This was followed by votes to put significant restrictions on President Bush's war policy, including a timeline for withdrawal, and creating a new GI Bill to help returning veterans.

This is the strongest vote by the House since the war began in opposition to the President's war.

But, this is just the first step.

As far as I'm concerned we finished the Job back in 2003 and should've pulled out and let the Iraqi's put their own house in order...

The War in Afghanistan still needs our attention as well

BTW Gus & Co: Did you ever see the Anthony Hopkins Film LEGENDS OF THE FALL ?

It tells of three brothers and their father living in the remote wilderness of 1900s USA and how their lives are affected by nature, history, war, and love

I recommend it as well and the WW1 Battle Sequences were very well done and realistically graphic....

It's a very good Freedom Minded Movie and very timely considering what is going on with the Debacle in Iraq

During History Class in Grammar and High School they forget to tell you how many Brave and Noble Doughboy's of the AEF came home mental basket cases after witnessing the carnage such as the Tristan Ludlow character did while fighting for Canada....

The Anthony Hopkins character (Col. Ludlow) summed it up best ....

Samuel chose to be a soldier and soldiers die! Sent to their slaughter by men in governments! Parasites like you!

The Bushes and Hitler’s Appeasement

Robert Parry
Global Research
May 21, 2008

The irony of George W. Bush going before the Knesset and mocking the late Sen. William Borah for expressing surprise at Adolf Hitler’s 1939 invasion of Poland is that Bush’s own family played a much bigger role assisting the Nazis.

If Borah, an isolationist Republican from Idaho, sounded naive saying "Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided," then what should be said about Bush’s grandfather and other members of his family providing banking and industrial assistance to the Nazis as they built their war machine in the 1930s?

The archival evidence is now clear that Prescott Bush, the president’s grandfather, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from and collaborated with key financial backers of Nazi Germany.

That business relationship continued after Hitler invaded Poland in 1939 and even after Germany declared war on the United States following Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941. It stopped only when the U.S. government seized assets of Bush-connected companies in late 1942 under the "Trading with the Enemy Act."

So, perhaps instead of holding up Sen. Borah to ridicule, Bush might have acknowledged in his May 15 speech that his forebears also were blind to the dangers of Hitler.

Bush might have noted that his family’s wealth, which fueled his own political rise, was partly derived from Nazi collaboration and possibly from slave labor provided by Auschwitz and other concentration camps.

Read more at ....

COINTELPRO Déjà Vu: FBI Recruits Informers for the RNC

In a way, you have to feel for Paul Carroll. Not because he was busted for the minor crime of spray-painting the interior of a campus elevator. But for what happened to him after he was charged with a gross misdemeanor.

As Matt Snyders, writing for City Pages, tells it Carroll was asked to meet with an FBI agent in a local coffee shop. Carroll, not the vandal’s real name, was offered an assignment by FBI Special Agent Maureen E. Mazzola, apparently her real name: to work as an informant.

For me, Carroll’s story serves up a large dose of déjà vu, taking me momentarily back to the early 1970s when the FBI, under COINTELPRO, did this sort of stuff on a regular basis.

As an antiwar activist, I witnessed a lot of this as Nixon, the FBI, the CIA, and military intelligence attempted to “neutralize,” as the FBI liked to call it, people exercising their First Amendment right to petition the government.

Back in the day, as you may likely assume, such petitioning concerned the war in Vietnam, in particular Nixon’s attack into Cambodia, which he announced on April 30, 1970.

A year later, a “Citizens Committee to Investigate the FBI” removed secret files from an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, and released them to the press. In short order we learned about the FBI’s dirty tricks, including infiltration of political groups, psychological warfare against targeted activists, harassment through the legal system, and even “extralegal” violence directed at dissidents, especially the Black Panthers, members of the American Indian Movement, and Puerto Rican activists. In dealing with the latter folks, nothing was out of the ordinary, including assassination. For instance, on December 3, 1969, Fred Hampton of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party was drugged by the FBI and then assassinated by the Chicago cops.

READ MORE AT.....

Bush misled U.S. on Iraq, former aide says in new book

Scott McClellan's 'What Happened' delivers tough criticism of president, advisers

By KEN HERMAN
Cox News Service

WASHINGTON — The White House called former press secretary Scott McClellan "disgruntled" after he wrote a blistering review of the administration and concluded that his longtime boss misled the nation into an unnecessary war in Iraq in a book due out Monday.

Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan's book, 'What Happened,' comes out Monday.
"History appears poised to confirm what most Americans today have decided — that the decision to invade Iraq was a serious strategic blunder," McClellan wrote in "What Happened," due out Monday. "No one, including me, can know with absolute certainty how the war will be viewed decades from now when we can more fully understand its impact."

"What I do know is that war should only be waged when necessary, and the Iraq war was not necessary," he wrote in the preface.

White House aides seemed stunned by the scathing tone of the book, and Bush press secretary Dana Perino issued a statement that was highly critical of their former colleague.

"Scott, we now know, is disgruntled about his experience at the White House," she said. "For those of us who fully supported him, before, during and after he was press secretary, we are puzzled. It is sad - this is not the Scott we knew."

Perino said the reports on the book had been described to Bush, and that she did not expect him to comment. "He has more pressing matters than to spend time commenting on books by former staffers," she said.

The book provoked strong reactions from former staffers as well.

"For him to do this now strikes me as self-serving, disingenuous and unprofessional," Fran Townsend, former head of the White House-based counterterrorism office, told CNN.

Said former top aide Karl Rove, in an interview with Fox News Channel, "If he had these moral qualms, he should have spoken up about them. And frankly I don't remember him speaking up about these things. I don't remember a single word."

Richard Clarke, another former counterterrorism adviser who also came out with a book critical of administration policy, said he could understand McClellan's thinking, however. Clarke told CNN that he, too, was harshly criticized, saying that "I can show you the tire tracks."

The volume makes McClellan, a Texan picked by the president and paid by the people to help sell the war to the world, the first longtime Bush aide to put such harsh criticism between hard covers. It is an extraordinarily critical book that questions Bush's intellectual curiosity, his candor in leading the nation to war, his pattern of self-deception and the quality of his advisers.

"As a Texas loyalist who followed Bush to Washington with great hope and personal affection and as a proud member of his administration, I was all too ready to give him and his highly experienced foreign policy advisers the benefit of the doubt on Iraq," McClellan wrote. "Unfortunately, subsequent events have showed that our willingness to trust the judgment of Bush and his team was misplaced."

McClellan worked for Bush from 1999, when he signed on as a deputy in the governor's press office, until 2006, when he was forced out as White House press secretary.Comments
By pete

That's a remarkable improvement, in right wing propaganda circles!

Also....

SUSAN SARANDON, who appeared in three films last year and won kudos for her TV movie "Bernard and Doris," is still not a contented soul. She says if John McCain gets elected, she will move to Italy or Canada. She adds, "It's a critical time, but I have faith in the American people

Larry Fine and Susan Sarandon...Separated At Birth ????

She told John Hiscock: "I thought the whole point of feminism is that you're not supposed to be defined by gender. I don't understand the reasoning behind that, because I wouldn't vote for Condoleezza Rice, and I hated Margaret Thatcher